Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-11-11
In AFRICA'S DEPTHS.
BRIEF SKETCH OF A REMARKABLE
COLONY OF BOERS.


dren, Who Crossed tho KaIahari
Desert to Find New Homes In q Tropi-
cal Wilderness.
When Great Britain annexed the Trans
vaal in 1877 many of the sturdy Bocr farmers
declared that they would never consent to
British rule. Their fathers, they said, had
left their old homes in Cape Colony to escape
British domination, and now they in turn
wero ready to abandon their farms and bury
themselves in some region far northward,
even among savage tribes, il thcy might thus
maintain their Independence. So 1t happened
that some time before their brethren set up
tho South African republic and went to war
for their Independence 700 Beers, men, wo-
men and children, yoled their oxen to big
wagons, that were piled high with all their
movable property, and set out across the
kalahari desert to find new homes in the
depths of Africa.
We have already told something of their
terrible sufTerings in the parched Kalahari
region and OF their toilsome two years pill
grmage. during which many Of them per-
ishcd, before they reached the verdant and
salubrious plateau where they at last planted
their future homes. They had Travelled over
1,O0O miles to gain Humpata, the site of their
new settlement, which is almost directly west
OF the Portuguese town of Mossamedes and
about $50 miles from the Atlantic ocean
The German explorer Denwitz has recently
visited them, and has brought back some in
teresting news OF this remarkable colony.
A GLIMPSE OF HOME LIFE.
There they are, blue eyed men and women
OF European ancestry, in the midst of wild
tribes who are not always friendly. while
ago Chief jan attacked the village, but the
Beers had plenty of powder and ball and
taught his tribe a lesson they will not soon
forget They have reared their houses, built
of wood and clay and covered with thatch,
upon rolling plain, through which runs a
river. There are usually two rooms in the
littlo cottages. Their furniture is very prim-
tive. They cannot easily renew many of the
household articles they brought from the
Transvaal, and so they pack them away and
bring them out only on festive occasions
The largest building in tho place is the little
church, where the lead of the colony con.
ducts divine services ON Sundays The col
onists are Professionals. About the only book
they have is the Bible. and the children are
taught to read from its pages
The Beers till no more ground than is
necessary to provide them with grain and
vegetables; but the country is full of game,
and the men and boys spend a great deal of
their time hunting. They kill many e.e-
plants and hippopotami. When they first
went to Hunpata they could not descend
from the mountainous border of the plateau
to the coast region except along a marrow
footpath They used to drive their oxen
down, carry their wagons in pieces down the
declivity, and then put them together and
haul their ivory and hides to the coast
With the help of tho Portuguese they have
ht,tl A.
tains- Now every month they send little
caravan to Mossamedes to sell the products
of the chase, and carry back to their home in
the great wilderness such wares of Europe as
| they require.
| The young girls are trained by their
mothers in all household cares and many of
them since reaching their new homes have
been welded to young men in the colony
| The men take the greatest pride in their guns
and cattle Their herd suffered terribly on
the long march from the Transvaal, but from
the survivors they have reared a plentiful
| supply of stock.
INDEPENDENCE NOT COMPLETE
Here these white people are living, volun-
tarily exiled from all signs of civilization ex-
| cept such as they have produced in their lit
Ito village; and yet they think their solitude
and Independence are not so complete as they
OuSnb 10 DC. Inc Thought troubles them that
Portugal claims sovereignty over their terri
bory. Portugal has not attempted In any
way to interfere In their affairs. They have
preserved complete liberty. They form a
little republic, and the voice of tho majority
rules. Still, to many of them, tho idea is in
supportable that they live in territory that is
claimed by any European power. So they
are seriously thinking of pulling up stakes
and getting outside even of the nominal iuris-
diction of the Portuguese
A number of tho men have been sent by the
colony to explore that part of the Bihe coun-
try northeast Of Humpata' which is not in
cluded in Portuguese territory. 1t is this
plateau that Cameron said some years ago
was well adapted for European occupancy.
II the delegation reports that the country is
fitted for the establishment of a colony, there
Is every probability that the Beers will take
up their march again. In the land they hope
to enter they will be about twice as far from
the sea as they now are, and tho nearest port
will be Benguela, in Angola.
These 70O Beers cut a unique figure in Afri-
can colonization. They have shown that it is
possible for large party of whites to make
their way into the depths of Africa, several
hundred miles within the tropics, and to live
there in comparative comfort. 1t is likely
that they are the only white people who are
competent to achieve success in such an un.
iertaking. York Sun.